Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a vehicle control apparatus for controlling a vehicle carrying the apparatus to bring an inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle and a preceding vehicle to a preset target inter-vehicle distance.
Related Art
A known vehicle control apparatus, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-127784, is configured to control a vehicle carrying the apparatus (hereinafter referred to as a subject vehicle) to bring an inter-vehicle distance between the subject vehicle and the preceding vehicle to a preset target inter-vehicle distance. Such a vehicle control apparatus may use a radar device to detect a distance to the preceding vehicle and a relative speed of the preceding vehicle. The radar device is configured to transmit radar waves to a front of the subject vehicle and receive reflected waves from a target present forward of the subject vehicle, and calculate an inter-vehicle distance between the subject vehicle and the preceding vehicle.
In the bad weather travel environment or the like, the radar device may fail to detect the rear end of the preceding vehicle as a target. In such a case, the inter-vehicle distance control of the subject vehicle behind the rear end of the preceding vehicle may not be implemented properly.
In consideration of the foregoing, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to providing a vehicle control apparatus capable of properly implementing inter-vehicle distance control of a vehicle carrying the apparatus behind a preceding vehicle.